Thursday, December 20, 2012

In this time
of supposed austerity in Canada and with the threats of public sector cutbacks at the federal and provincial levels,
it's interesting to read a report by the Canadian Federation of Independent
Business (CFIB) entitled "Calling in Sick: Comparing Days Away from Work in the
Public and Private Sector". This report gives us a look
at another facet of the workplace that differentiates those Canadians who work
in the private sector from those who work for Canadian taxpayers. The
data in the study is based on 2011 data from Statistics Canada. Let's go.

To start, here is a table from Statistics Canada showing
the number of public sector employees in Canada in 2011 by employer (i.e.
federal, provincial and municipal) and the wages paid:

Here is a graph showing the growing number of
public sector employees over the past five years:

Public
sector employees represent 20.2 percent of total employment in Canada, a very
slight decline from the 20.6 percent level reached in the fourth quarter of 2009.
Employment in the three levels of government accounts for 38.1 percent of
the total, followed by 29.2 percent employed by educational institutions, 23.9
percent employed in health and social service institutions and 8.8 percent in
government business enterprises.

Now, on to
the sick day data. Here's a graphic showing how many "sick
days" are taken by the public and private sector in Canada on average:

The majority
of days off were due to sickness or disability with public sector workers
taking 2.0 days off for "personal reasons" compared to 1.5 days for
the private sector.

In case you
wondered, there is a dramatic difference in the number of sick days taken for
each level of government as shown here:

Federal
government workers lose an average of 15.2 days per year to "illness"
or just over a day and a quarter every month. This compares to 11.9 days
per year or one day per month for provincial government workers. In
contrast, private companies with more than 500 employees lose 9.1 days per year
or three-quarters of a day per month and the "healthiest" employees
at private companies with less than 20 employees lose only 6.7 days per year or
just over half a day per month.

Not only do
public sector employees take more sick days, many of them have sick leave provisions
built into their union contracts that private sector employees can only dream
about. Public sector employees in some provinces can accumulate sick days
and, upon retirement, can receive a cash payout to a maximum of a half year of
earnings. In Quebec, for example, nurses, health and social services
employees and professionals and blue collar provincial government workers can accumulate sick days
that can be used for early retirement. That's just like what happened to
most of us who worked in the private sector, isn't it (he said, dripping with
sarcasm).

Some suggest
that public sector employees need more sick days because they are, on average,
older than workers in the private sector. In fact, Statistics Canada data
shows that the average age of public sector workers ranges between 43 and 45
whereas those in the private sector have an average age of 41. This is
hardly a significant difference and does absolutely nothing to explain the
difference in the number of sick days taken for the different levels of
government.

How much is
this costing Canadian taxpayers? CFIB research estimates that the
additional five sick days taken by public sector is worth up to $3.5 billion in
paid wages.

Perhaps the
Harper and provincial governments, in their haste to achieve fiscal balance,
would be wise to level the playing field between the private and public sectors
when it comes to the number of allowable sick days. Elimination of the
accumulation of sick days and accompanying cash payouts would go a long way to
correcting this imbalance and make for a fairer workplace. After all, isn't it all about productivity? An absent employee is a non-productive employee.

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About Me

I have been an avid follower of the world's political and economic scene since the great gold rush of 1979 - 1980 when it seemed that the world's economic system was on the verge of collapse. I am most concerned about the mounting level of government debt and the lack of political will to solve the problem. Actions need to be taken sooner rather than later when demographic issues will make solutions far more difficult. As a geoscientist, I am also concerned about the world's energy future; as we reach peak cheap oil, we need to find viable long-term solutions to what will ultimately become a supply-demand imbalance.